The Full Monty is the publication that exposes you to the business intelligence that matters at the top of every week. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing. And please share this with your colleagues if you find it valuable.

Join me

Industry

Gannett made an $815 million offer to buy Tribune Publishing. If the deal goes through amid a struggling newspaper industry, the combined entity would account for 17% of all daily circulation.

Your media business will not be saved. "Video will not save your media business. Nor will bots, newsletters, a “morning briefing” app, a “lean back” iPad experience, Slack integration, a Snapchat channel, or a great partnership with Twitter." The Twitter partnership definitely won't help.

Salesforce.com surveyed internet users who are cutting the cord. The top reason for doing so? It's too expensive. Followed by technical issues and poor customer service. The question is how expensive the alternative might be once some customers piece together their content choices.

Platforms

Facebook

Facebook reported Q1 earnings last week, demonstrating its dominance in and hold over the tech industry. The company posted a 52% surge in first-quarter revenue, underscoring the strength of the social network’s newer mobile-ad products and rising popularity of its video ads.

Twitter reported its quarterly earnings, disappointing on revenue and on projections. While advertisers are spending more on its higher-quality video ad products, the company said that marketers are cutting back on more traditional ads that drive users to their websites and that they are looking for better targeting before the commit more money.

Twitter is a more lucrative option than Facebook for some video publishers. Despite Twitter’s smaller reach it has an easy solution for them to make money by splitting pre-roll video ad revenue.

Alphabet is building a new hardware division under Motorola's former CEO. The group includes Nexus phone, streaming device Chromecast, consumer hardware, OnHub wireless home router, ATAP experimental hardware and Glass.

Trivia question: Sir Ian McKellen released an app last week. What does it do? *

Collaborative / Autonomous Economy

Transportation

London was the 11th city that Uber went into, but it was like no other taxi market that the company had attempted to disrupt. Any city with taxi drivers who need something called 'the Knowledge' to drive is going to be different. To understand how the $60B company is taking over the world, you need to stop thinking about cars. This is a fascinating story of Uber's take-no-prisoners approach in the market in which it was least likely to succeed.

Program of the Week. This week's recommendation comes from Frank Zolenski. Manager Tools is billed as "the best business podcast" and gives new and seasoned managers alike ideas, tactics and tools to help them do their jobs better. And it's one we've listened to for years. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts

Why marketers struggle with the concept of storytelling: "​If advertising truly represents great storytelling then we would almost certainly be on the brink of our civilization’s decline. But while you talk of overcoming ‘conflict’, the fact of the matter is that you have next to no appetite for the kind of conflict that is the real stuff of story. Loss, greed, death, hunger, rivalry, injustice, isolation, desire… this and more is the stuff of great, enduring, insightful stories — no marketing department on the planet has any appetite for any of this stuff.​"

An email privacy bill is heading to the US House of Representatives for approval. The law would require law enforcement authorities to get a search warrant before asking technology companies to hand over emails older than 180 days.

Welcome

Scott Monty is a neoclassical digital executive. As a keynote speaker, advisor and recovering Fortune 10 executive, he gives talks to companies and industry organizations about the need to relentlessly focus on the customer. He uses his knowledge of historic literature, philosophy and poetry, together with his ability to trend-spot to show audiences that the key to our future is in understanding timeless wisdom about human nature.